Overseas student market at risk

THE threat to universities from a significant downturn in international students is real and immigration needs to better refine its visa integrity.

These measures will ensure legitimate students aren't being caught in the crackdown.

Universities Australia chairman Peter Coaldrake has warned the federal government the sector isn't exaggerating its fears that changes to immigration regulations threaten damage to international student markets that are already vulnerable because of the high Australian dollar and increasing competition.

Professor Coaldrake said immigration needed to take a more "risk proportionate" approach.

The government was clamping down on "dodgy" migration practices that had led to students exploiting, and being exploited by, poor quality providers acting as "visa factories".

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"We agree with the broad policy settings, but the latest migration changes are almost certainly going to have unintended consequences and we need to digest those quickly and respond to them as promptly as we can," said Professor Coaldrake, who is vice-chancellor of Queensland University of Technology.

"We have to take a risk-proportionate approach to different categories of students. We have to recalibrate the visa approach to the type and level of course and to source countries," he said.

QUT's deputy vice-chancellor international, Scott Sheppard, said that while high incidences of fraud in Indian and other South Asian markets had justified a crackdown there, it would be fair to counter that by lowering assurance levels in China where compliance had improved. Immigration should also take greater account of the disciplines students were applying to study.

Last week the HES reported offshore grants for higher education were down 20 per cent in the nine months to March. Commencements in all three university pathway sectors - vocational, English language and schools - were down. English language commencements were down 30 per cent. "I think the government has a view that we are over-egging this . . . [but] we aren't over-egging this issue, we are very concerned about it," Professor Coaldrake said.

Mr Sheppard said a key problem was less the actual changes but the negative perceptions the changes were generating in international markets. He said the delay in releasing the new priority skills list, combined with the abrupt crackdown on some visa categories, had created confusion that could take a year to clear.

"The changes have sent a lot of negative messages out about whether Australia is welcoming of international students," he said.

Monash University vice-chancellor Ed Byrne said the sector and government needed to get on the "front foot" and reassure markets that Australia still welcomed international students and offered pathways for them to stay.

"I don't believe anybody in a position of authority wants to give this message, but the message has got out there that Australia may not be as welcoming for international students perhaps as it was in the past," he said.

Professor Byrne said a well-educated international student accustomed to Australia was a "fantastic" candidate for migration. But University of Melbourne migration expert Lesleyanne Hawthorne said universities would benefit from the changes.

While the sector as a whole was facing a significant downturn, she expected ongoing growth for universities as students rapidly attuned to the new settings.

"We are in a transition that we needed absolutely to have," she said. She said the new priorities on employer and government sponsorship for permanent residency would encourage students to take high-quality degrees to maximise their chances.

"Students will realise very quickly that in this changed system they need to invest in high-quality courses, in reputable institutions, and they would be sensible not to study in an oversupplied field such as business," she said.

Professor Hawthorne regularly researches key competitor Canada and believes that even under the new settings Australia remains attractive for students wanting to pursue permanent residency.

"Students aren't going to find an alternative quick and easy, cheap, study-migration pathway," she said.

"It [the new system] is a much more complicated system, but it isn't in the least hopeless for the study-migration pathway."

Source:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/overseas-student-market-at-risk/story-e6frgcjx-1225882948204